University of Groningen
Faculty of Economics and Business
Gender Diversity in Academia
From the Viewpoint of Women in Academia
J.S. Boertien
S3827526
MSc Business Administration: Change Management
June 2020
First supervisor: Dr. M.L. Hage
Co-assessor: Dr. I. Maris – De Bresser
Abstract
Gender diversity is a topic with increasing interest in different kinds of organizations, including universities. However, universities seem to be resilient to change when considering the rate of female professors. The goal of this study is to examine how female faculty members from a Dutch university perceive the role of career development and work-life policies on their career development. To examine this topic, an embedded multiple-case study approach is adopted, including fourteen in-depth interviews with female faculty members who are positioned from assistant professor to full professor. From these interviews, I concluded that the typical faculty member does not exist and that every woman at the university has different needs and preferences, which has not been stated in literature before. Furthermore, the findings show that the current policies for career development enforce the current masculine culture that is focused on performance and excellence. Moreover, it appeared that the individual perceptions are influenced by a person’s work domain, home domain and societal pressures. Future research could, among other things, also include women who have left academia, which provides us with a broader view of the perceptions of these policies.
Table of Contents
Abstract ... 2
1. Introduction ... 4
2. Literature Review ... 7
2.1 Barriers for Women in Academia ... 7
2.2 Gender Issues in the Academic Workplace ... 8
2.3 Work-Life and Career Development Policies in Academia ... 10
2.4 What Can Be Concluded Based on Current Literature? ... 12
3. Methods ... 12 3.1 Research Approach ... 12 3.2 Research Context ... 13 3.3 Data Collection ... 13 3.3.1 Interviews ... 14 3.3.2 Archival data ... 15 3.4 Data Analysis ... 15 3.4.1 Open coding ... 15 3.4.2 Axial coding ... 16 3.4.3 Selective coding ... 16 3.5 Research Quality ... 16 4. Results ... 17 4.1 Vignettes ... 17
4.2 Perceptions of the Organization’s Culture and Climate ... 21
4.2.1 General working climate ... 21
4.2.2 Perceptions of gender and the organization’s culture ... 25
4.3 Interactions Between Work, Life and Society ... 26
4.3.1 Lack of awareness ... 26
4.3.2 Incompatibility of career development and work-life policies ... 27
4.3.3 Disproportional committee responsibilities due to representation policy ... 27
4.3.4 Masculinity instead of men at the top ... 28
4.3.5 Considerations in making decisions to balance work and family life ... 29
5. Discussion ... 32
5.1 Research Implications ... 35
5.2 Practical Implications ... 36
5.3 Limitations and Future Research ... 37
5.4 Conclusion ... 38
References ... 39
Appendices ... 44
Appendix A: EU Ranking women professors ... 44
Appendix B: Interview Guide ... 45
Appendix C: Archival data collected ... 52
Appendix D: Compared faculty-specific tenure track policies ... 55
1. Introduction
There is currently a worldwide discussion about gender diversity within several types of organizations, including educational organizations like universities. The Dutch Network of Women Professors (Landelijk Netwerk Vrouwelijke Hoogleraren, 2019) has stated that 53.9% of college graduates in the Netherlands were women. Likewise, 43% of those who earned Ph.D.’s and 41.8% of assistant professors were women. In contrast, women comprised only 28.4% of associate professors and 23.1% of full professors (Landelijk Netwerk Vrouwelijke Hoogleraren, 2019). This relatively low percentage raises questions. Why are there relatively more female graduates but fewer female professors? A common explanation for this question is that work-life issues regarding teaching or research cause stress and family concerns about child care and pregnancy (Juraqulova, McCluskey, & Mittelhammer, 2019). This interpretive study aims to discover how female faculty members from different faculties perceive the policies that guide their career development and whether these policies enable them to combine private and professional life.
Gender diversity is an inescapable phenomenon. Many organizations are taking measures to become more gender diverse. As Malý and Velinov (2016) explain: ‘Gender diversity is measured by the proportion of males and females (gender distribution) in a team’ (Malý & Velinov, 2016, p. 4). Increasingly, more organizations are consciously hiring more women to keep up with public pressure. According to a report by McKinsey & Company (2019), many companies have significantly increased their commitment to gender diversity. The report states that: ‘Today, 87 percent of companies are highly committed to gender diversity, compared to 56 percent in 2012, when McKinsey & Company first conducted a similar study on the state of women at work’ (Huang, Krivkovich, Starikova, Yee, & Zanoschi, 2019, p. 8). Gender diversity is also an increasingly relevant research topic. Research has been conducted on the effect of gender diversity on team performance or financial/business performance. The results of these studies are inconsistent: some studies claim that there is convincing evidence that gender diverse teams influence financial or team performance and other studies claim that gender diverse teams do not affect these aspects. In contrast, studies about gender diversity and its positive effect on innovation within (different layers of) organizations are consistent in their results (Dai, Byun, & Ding, 2019; He & Jiang, 2019; Martinez, Zouaghi, & Marco, 2016; Ruiz-Jiménez & del Mar Fuentes-Fuentes, 2016; Xie, Zhou, Zong, & Lu, 2020; Østergaard, Timmermans, & Kristinsson, 2011). Consequently, achieving gender diversity should be a priority for innovative organizations.
This thesis focuses on gender diversity in academia. The Dutch context is especially interesting because the Netherlands places 24 out of 28 on the EU ranking about the division between male and female professors (Landelijk Netwerk Vrouwelijke Hoogleraren, 2019) (Appendix A). Currently, there has been scant research on gender diversity in academia, although some prior studies can provide further insights for this study and have similar research goals (e.g. Juraqulova, McCluskey, & Mittelhammer, 2019).
Most of the previous studies have focused on gender diversity in STEM disciplines (Botella, Rueda, López-Iñesta, & Marzal, 2019; Schmuck, 2016; Su, Johnson, & Bozeman, 2015), professional relationships and their effects on careers (Gersick, Bartuneck, & Dutton, 2000; Schoen, Rost, & Seidl, 2018) or barriers that women perceive when climbing the career ladder (Knipfer, Shaughnessy, Hentschel, & Schmid, 2016; Santos, 2016). However, few of these studies have been published in organizational or management journals. An extensive literature review from 2015 that reviewed gender research in the Academy of Management Journal between 1970 and 2015 only identified one article about gender issues in academia (Joshi, Neely, Emrich, Griffiths, & George, 2015). This paper studied the roles of workplace relationships for professionals and managers in academic fields and found a significant difference in gender: ‘men's and women's different relational experiences may foster different career logics, or ways of striving for success’ (Gersick et al., 2000, p. 1026).
Although certain organizational policies have been implemented to balance work-life challenges, anti-discrimination legislation has been passed and other measures to benefit women’s career development have been enacted, gender diversity in academia still appears to be resilient to change. Women remain underrepresented this field (Appendix A). Other mechanisms may be present that prevent these policies from being effective. A study about work-life policies for medical faculties states that the use of work-life policies may be discouraged because of a stigma that arose when such policies were not widely used (Bristol, Abbuhl, Cappola, & Sonnad, 2008). Therefore, this paper examines how female faculty members at a Dutch university perceive the role of work-life and career development policies and why they perceive it like that. Hence, the research question is:
How do female faculty members perceive the role of work-life and career development policies in their academic career development and why do they have these perceptions?
Universities are organizations with their own strategies and structures for achieving excellence for their students and staff. Therefore, investigating these policies from a change management perspective is appropriate. Why is the pace of the change of attracting or retaining women professors so slow? The underlying mechanisms researched in this thesis might give us more insights regarding this question. Furthermore, this thesis is socially relevant because the Dutch government forces several organizations to have gender diverse advisory boards, but such rules do not apply to universities. The gender quota in the Netherlands only applies to listed companies (Sociaal Economische Raad, 2019). Even though Dutch universities are subsidized by the government (Rijksoverheid, n.d.), the government does not mandate that they apply rules for gender diversity. Moreover, the current pandemic has forced academics to work at home while managing their family. This can make their faculty advancement even more challenging. An article from Viglione (2020) analysed papers from other researchers about the number of papers that are published during the pandemic. It also analysed the number of papers per gender: ‘Early analyses suggest female academics are posting fewer preprints than men, and starting fewer projects.’ (Viglione, 2020, p. 365).
One potential reason why work-life and career development policies have not yet affected gender diversity in academia could be the unconscious bias that individuals, peers or managers have towards these policies. The current research on manager and peer bias offers insightful information about prejudice in situations like job evaluation talks. However, bias can also exist for individuals and managers who evaluate policies in the workplace. This thesis investigates the underlying mechanisms that play a role in the adoption of work-life and career development policies from the viewpoint of women in academia. While it is outside the scope of this thesis to measure bias, it is important to be aware that it affects the work environments of many faculty members.
As explained by Bristol et al. (2008), stigma about work-life and career development policies can result in faculty members not using the given policies because they fear being seen as less committed to the university. This study builds on current knowledge about women in academia by revealing some of the underlying mechanisms that explain why faculty members use certain policies but not others, why some policies give women a sense of inclusivity and some do not and what hinders women from developing their careers in academia.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Barriers for Women in Academia
To understand how female faculty members perceive several policies in the workplace, it is important to know more about the barriers that female academics face. Many studies about barriers for women in academia mention the concept of the ‘glass ceiling’. The glass ceiling refers to invisible barriers that prevent women from advancing their careers within organizations (Hoobler, Wayne, & Lemmon, 2009). When linking the glass ceiling to academia, Bain and Cummings (2000) state the following: ‘A glass ceiling of unstated norms and distorted expectations is said to hinder women from reaching the top of academe’ (p. 493). Williams (2005) adds that ‘one-half of the glass ceiling involves scenarios that cause women to feel they have to try twice as hard to achieve half as much’ (p. 93). The other part of the glass ceiling includes some scenarios that penalize high-powered women in case they perform their jobs too well. For example, a woman whose colleagues disparage her after she publishes an article because they view the publication as representing arrogance instead of achievement (Williams, 2005).
A qualitative paper about the barriers faced by women leaders in academia provides several insights (Howe-Walsh & Turnbull, 2016). The paper investigates how women from universities in the United Kingdom perceive leadership barriers in science and technology departments. In-depth interviews reveal the constraints that women discerned against their career development. First, the authors state that a ‘male-dominated culture influences daily working practices and the evidence suggests that exclusion from networks limits opportunities for career advancement’ (Home-Walsh & Turnbull, 2016, p. 425). Interestingly, the authors do not mention anything about whether a male-dominated culture is also related to masculinity. However, a male-male-dominated culture may not always be masculine. This is important to consider when writing about male-dominance in this thesis. Nevertheless, the authors posit that male-dominated culture can be intimidating to women and make them consider leaving the organization. The authors also claim that having children influences career development because the study found that informal working hours were expected in many organizations. The authors explain that a common effect of these activities during informal working hours is that women are excluded from participating in decision-making within the organization (Howe-Walsh & Turnbull, 2016). The study adds that contributing to decision-making ‘can have a direct impact upon their ability to positively contribute towards the organisation’ (Howe-Walsh & Turnbull, 2016, p. 424). As a result, women in these situations have fewer opportunities when it comes to contributing positively to the organization. Other papers have also argued that ‘women may encounter more barriers in achieving both objective and subjective career success due to their heavier family responsibilities (e.g. childcare, priority given to the husbands’ career or other familial constraints)’ (Santos, 2016, p. 64; Afiouni & Karam, 2014; Bain & Cummings, 2000).
perceptions of academia’ (Van Anders, 2004, p. 518). For example, women ranked parenthood plans and mobility higher than men did. Therefore, the author concludes that ‘when deciding whether to pursue an academic career, women may be more likely than men to include such related factors as parental leaves, childcare, and geographic mobility in their considerations’ (Van Anders, 2004, p. 518). Furthermore, women may have internalized the gendered expectation that they are children’s primary caregivers (Valian, 1998). One could add that partners and family have also internalized this idea. The gender role expectation has become a social norm (Valian, 1998). According to Van Anders (2004), this can make the roles of primary caregiver and academic with long work hours incompatible. Interestingly, the study also shows that women indicate that they feel that for example, plans for parenthood have a bigger influence on their academic careers than men indicate. Multiple other studies have also concluded that family responsibilities and work-life conflicts can prevent women from entering tenure track positions within universities or advancing their academic careers (e.g. Slan-Jerusalim & Chen, 2009; Juraqulova, McCluskey, & Mittelhammer, 2019).
2.2 Gender Issues in the Academic Workplace
As previously mentioned, universities claim to be meritocracies (Scully, 2002) and thereby state that academic excellence is the most important component and gender does not matter. However, when looking at gender diversity in academia, this claim can be doubted. Treviño et al. (2018) state that meritocracy in academia has mostly failed because of the bias in decision-making at universities, as these types of organizations have male-dominated hierarchies at the top. One of many reasons why the hierarchies are male-dominated at the top is the barriers that female academics face in their career advancement at the university. Williams (2005) refers to these barriers as the ‘glass ceiling’. According to Williams (2005), ‘many women never get near the glass ceiling because of a type of gender bias that has only recently been documented’ (p. 91). Next to the glass ceiling, Williams (2005) identifies the ‘maternal wall’, which is seen as a gender bias that constrains women from developing their careers once they become mothers: ‘Women who have children soon after receiving their Ph.D. are much less likely to achieve tenure than men who have children at the same point in their career’ (p. 91). Therefore, Williams (2005) argues that the maternal wall can be seen as a type of bias that gets triggered at the moment when women’s maternity becomes salient. The interaction between the glass ceiling and the maternal wall mainly occurs in career advancement. In some fields, geographic mobility is important for pursuing an academic career. From that viewpoint, ‘nonmothers (including men) will tend to move up if they reach a certain level of accomplishment, whereas mothers are more likely than others to be unable to relocate’ (Williams, 2005, p. 100).
makes it more difficult for women to demonstrate their competence. First, Williams identifies a gender stereotype that represents the exceptions that faculty members create for men (e.g. benefit of the doubt) ‘whereas women are held to the universalistic standards’ (Williams, 2005, p. 94). Moreover, Williams (2005) explains that ‘highlighting women’s failures while glossing over those of men makes it harder for women to establish their competence’ (p. 94). This gender stereotype is also confirmed in the article by Van den Brink and Benschop (2012), where they explain the so-called ‘paternalistic view’. This view contributes to the practice of gender inequality; for example, some of the respondents to their study stated that ‘the role of professor is too much to expect of a woman, so that women are not seen as obvious choices for professorships’ (Van den Brink & Benschop, 2012, p.79). Second, Williams identifies a stereotype that women are judged on accomplishments and men on potential. This stereotype is similar to the first one in certain ways. However, the second stereotype focuses on individuals while the first one has a broader perspective (Williams, 2005). Third, Williams (2005) states that women’s mistakes are remembered while men’s mistakes are forgotten. In other words, women experience more difficulties than men when it comes to being perceived as competent. A reason for this may be that an aspect of someone that fits a certain stereotype can be more accurately recalled than other features that do not fit a stereotype (Williams, 2005).
Other forms of gender bias can arise in different phases of the recruitment and selection procedure at universities. Madera, Hebl, Dial, Martin, & Valian (2019) evaluated one of the first steps of this procedure: receiving a letter of recommendation. They found that ‘letters of recommendation for women, compared to letters for men, contain more doubt raisers, specifically, negativity, hedges, and faint praise’ (Madera et al., 2019, p. 297). Doubt raisers are statements or written expressions that doubt the applicant’s suitability for the job. The second finding in their study was that ‘both negativity (i.e., a type of doubt raiser that points out weaknesses) and hedging (i.e., a forthright admission of uncertainty) in letters of recommendation lead to lower evaluations of applicants, regardless of the gender of the applicant’ (Madera et al., 2019, p. 298). When combining these findings, the authors state that the evaluators of letters of recommendations treat the doubt raisers seriously and equally for both genders, but because the doubt raisers are more common for women, women ‘are more likely to be negatively affected by them’ (Madera et al., 2019, p. 298). Letters of recommendations are used for selection decisions in academia (Nicklin & Roch, 2009), so the findings of Madera et al. (2019) have important implications for women in academia. According to Van den Brink, Benschop and Jansen (2010), ‘women would benefit from more open and transparent procedures, since (gender) bias is more likely to occur when assessments are based on obscure criteria and the process of evaluation kept confidential’ (p. 1459).
of these courses, as graduate courses are generally rated higher (Keim & Erickson, 1998). This means that teaching undergraduate courses can harm one’s career. The authors add that undergraduate courses are also considered less prestigious by tenure committees, which can also harm the academic career plans of faculty members (Keim & Erickson, 1998).
Another gender issue that can be present in the workplace is the so-called ‘bias avoidance strategy’. An article by Drago et al. (2006) states that bias avoidance strategies can be present in the workplace and identifies employee behaviour that prevents certain ‘career penalties’ associated with commitments to family or caregiving. These commitments to family or caregiving are elements of work-life policies that have been adopted by many universities. The next subchapter delves more deeply into the existing literature about work-life and career development policies in academia.
2.3 Work-Life and Career Development Policies in Academia
According to Slan-Jerusalim and Chen (2009), the topic of work-life balance has received an increasing amount of attention in both practice and research since the early 1980s. As Lester (2013) explains: ‘The term work-life balance is generally understood as the ability of an individual to balance work and home responsibilities to achieve a meaningful life. In organizations, work-life balance translates into programs and policies to support workplace and career flexibility’ (p. 56). Similarly, a work-life conflict is defined as a conflict between roles at work and in private life, where the pressures of these roles are incompatible with each other (Dorenkamp & Ruhle, 2019; Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985).
A recent study from Juraqulova, McCluskey and Mittelhammer (2019) examined whether there is a relationship between the representation of female faculty across academic ranks and a university’s work-life support initiatives. One of the outcomes is that dual career policies, which grant employment assistance to individuals whose partners are also seeking careers in academia, have ‘a positive effect on the female representation at the assistant and associate levels, but are not statistically significant at the full professor level’ (Juraqulova et al., 2019, p. 193). The authors suggest that even though these policies support the dual careers of academics, the positive effect decreases as the career path of female academics matures. The study of Juraqulova et al. (2019) also found that the influence of available work-life policies depends on how aware faculty are of these policies and the needs that faculty members have at different times in their career trajectories. Generally, faculty members will need different policies when they have young children than when they are close to retirement. Another study discovered that employees perceive low levels of work-family conflict when there are few negative consequences for their careers when they take time off for family matters (Thompson, Beauvais, & Lyness, 1999).
have a discouraging effect on the use of the policies. Faculty members may be concerned that they will be perceived as less committed to the university if they use the available policies, so they decline to utilize them.
This is relevant to academia because academics often experience difficulties aligning their demanding academic work with their private lives. Höhle and Teichler (2013) provide a possible explanation for this. They claim that it takes academics longer than university graduates employed in other fields to become fully competent professionals, which might create additional stress for academics. Work-life conflicts have been studied in many different fields and contexts. The empirical literature review of Gisler et al. (2018) includes literature about work-family conflicts and employee health that spans more than three decades. In their paper, the authors explain that work-family conflict is considered part of work-life conflict in general. The paper identifies two types of work-family conflict: Work Interfering with Family (WIF) and Family Interfering with Work (FIW) (Gisler et al., 2018). An example of WIF is working late, which interferes with putting children to bed. An example of FIW is when accompanying an older parent to a doctor’s appointment interferes with work (Slan-Jerusalim & Chen, 2009). Distinguishing between WIF and FIW helps clarify the answers given in the interviews conducted for this thesis.
A case study from 2015 investigated some multilevel interventions that encourage academics’ ability to balance family and work-life by examining the organizational policies within a university (Ridgway O’Brien, Martinez, Ruggs, Rinehart & Hebl, 2015). Table 1 contains the interventions, along with a short explanation and other studies I found that confirm the interventions.
Table 1
Multilevel interventions for a work-life balance
Intervention level Explanation Other confirming literature
1. Individual Family-friendly policies offer possibilities for men and women to succeed in balancing their work and non-work lives. Primary caretaker leave, flexible work schedules or on-site day care
facilities are examples of resources that can be included in a family-friendly environment (Ridgway O’Brien, 2015). By creating a supportive work environment, individual contributions by all employees can be maximized.
(Bilimoria, Joy, & Liang, 2008; Bristol et al., 2008; Grover & Crooker, 1995; Kolker Finkel, Olswang, & She, 1994; Slan-Jerusalim & Chen, 2009; Thompson et al., 1999) 2. Organizational These interventions must be systematic and should identify all
hidden barriers in order to reduce the ‘glass ceiling’ in a systematic way to remove or restructure each of the barriers (Ridgway
O’Brien, 2015). An example of an organizational intervention is a department chair who helps employees manage their work-life issues and supports them in enacting work-life policies.
(Bilimoria et al., 2008; Fox, Fonseca, & Bao, 2011; Grover & Crooker, 1995; Thompson et al., 1999; Van Anders, 2004;) 3. Community The community intervention includes contacting other
organizations to share experiences about certain policies that could benefit the entire university community (Ridgway O’Brien, 2015).
(Bilimoria et al., 2008;
Gonzalez, Ragins, Ehrhardt, & Singh, 2018)
sometimes gendered differently, these policies often generalize all academic fields. Therefore, different fields need different approaches, and ‘tackling the underrepresentation of women requires a variety of gender equality measures tailored to the specific discipline or field’ (Van den Brink & Benschop, 2012, p.87).
2.4 What Can Be Concluded Based on Current Literature?
This study focuses on work-life and career development policies in female academics’ careers. Extensive research has already been conducted about different topics regarding women in academia. We already know about several barriers that female faculty members face during their academic careers. These barriers limit the upward mobility of women in academia (the glass ceiling), or exist because of their personal lives and caregiving or family responsibilities. Furthermore, I also spoke about the maternal wall that represents the constraints women experience in their career development once they become mothers. The glass ceiling and the maternal wall are related to each other because as soon as women have children, their career development becomes constrained, which limits their upward mobility in their university. Moreover, gender bias can harm people’s perceptions of female faculty members. These perceptions can originate from subtle gendered stereotypes. For example, people tend to judge women on their accomplishments and men on their potential to achieve success. The literature review also analyses the research that has been conducted about work-life and career development policies, how these policies influence women in academia and how such policies are supposed to help women. Chapter 3 elaborates on the methods used in this thesis.
3. Methods
3.1 Research Approach
Furthermore, conducting qualitative research is considered the correct approach because ‘qualitative data are appropriate for studying phenomena that are not well understood’ (Edmondson & McManus, 2007, p. 1155). This interpretive study strives to uncover underlying mechanisms that may partially explain the low representation of women in academia by conducting in-depth interviews. The approach used in this thesis fits the research phenomenon.
3.2 Research Context
This study was conducted with female faculty members from three (out of 11) departments within a Dutch university that was founded over 400 years ago. The university has installed programs to spur female faculty members’ career development within the organization; however, according to the most recent report of the Dutch Network of Women Professors, this university had a growth rate of women professors of 2.1%, which was below the national average (Landelijk Netwerk Vrouwelijke Hoogleraren, 2019). Therefore, focusing on this university provides insights into why female support programmes, as well as other career development and work-life policies, have had a limited impact on the organization’s gender composition.
The context of this research involves three faculties at this university. To ensure confidentiality, the faculties are referred to as A, B and C. These three faculties were chosen because they are all located on the university campus, but they cover distinct subjects and have different research objectives (Beta and Gamma). They were also chosen because of their gender division. According to numbers from July 2019, 14.70% of Faculty A’s professors were female, 19.10% of Faculty B’s professors were female and 11.10% of Faculty C’s professors were female (Personal communication, 2020). Even though the percentages do not vastly differ, Faculty B seems to be slightly better at attracting and retaining female professors than Faculty A and C. Nonetheless, the female academics in Faculty B still have to compete with approximately the same amount of men in their department as their female colleagues in Faculties A and C. Therefore, we can ask ourselves if the policies of the faculty influenced this change or whether the department’s culture or other factors changed the perceptions of the female faculty members.
3.3 Data Collection
3.3.1 Interviews
Semi-structured interviews were conducted via Skype in April and May 2020 and lasted between 48 minutes to one hour and 20 minutes. Fourteen female faculty members from three different faculties participated in the interviews. Semi-structured interviews allow the interviewer to intervene when a participant does not understand a question and needs clarification (Adhabi & Anozie, 2017). Furthermore, I chose this approach because the interview questions could be prepared beforehand, and I could implement the relevant knowledge obtained from the literature. This type of interview also lets participants relay their own experiences and stories. During the interviews, I applied different interview techniques, such as probing and implementing pauses, to challenge interviewees to provide more information. The interviews consisted of questions categorized into different groups. The interview guides in Appendix B functioned as a basis for every interview. The interview guide was only used after I wrote a draft and my supervisor approved it. The final interview guide consisted of different sets of questions. First, I asked some general questions about the participants’ career trajectories. Then, I questioned the participants about their perceptions of career development policies. The next set of questions focused on perceptions about work-life policies. Subsequently, I solicited the participants’ opinions about gender diversity at the university. I closed by asking the participants their ideas about why the numbers of women in academia in the Netherlands are low.
The first interview was considered a pilot interview; it identified which questions needed further clarification. The interviews were audio-taped, which enhanced the reliability of the research. Due to COVID-19, all interviews were conducted through Skype. The participants were told beforehand that Skype would be used. However, the participants could also choose another medium that was more convenient for them. Therefore, Google Hangouts was used for one interview. Overall, the online set up of the interviews shaped the interaction so that technical difficulties sometimes interrupted the participants’ narratives, causing them to become confused about what they wanted to say. However, there were not many technical difficulties.
No names were used to ensure the privacy of the participants. I solely used pseudonyms, like P1 (Participant 1), P2 and P3, and vignettes. If the respondents mentioned identifying information in the interviews, such as names, cities or years, I removed these from the transcripts. Table 2 is a descriptive table of the participants.
Table 2
Descriptive table of participants
Position # participants Children # participants
Assistant professor 2 Yes 10
Associate professor 9 No 4
Full professor 3
Faculty Tenure Track
A 5 Yes 9
B 4 No 5
After I conducted and transcribed an interview, I sent it to the participant to confirm, edit or add to the transcribed answers. The participants were mainly satisfied with their interviews. Some requested a small adjustment. However, the majority made no adjustments.
3.3.2 Archival data
Archival data was used to gain knowledge about the policies currently in place at the university. First, I consulted the collective labour agreement of Dutch Universities, which states general policies on different subjects. For this thesis, the policies on parental leave, maternity leave and other types of leave were examined. In total, I reviewed 19 webpages about work-life and career development policies from the intranet of the university, 101 pages regarding faculty-specific tenure track policies, and three other documents that were available on the website of the university. These three documents were all scanned by searching for terms like ‘gender’, ‘diversity’ and ‘equality’. All documents had a normal font and text size. By reading all these documents, I obtained a satisfactory understanding of what is available at the university and what the university’s goals and values are. Having some basic knowledge about these policies helped me understand what approaches the university has currently adopted. This knowledge was also useful for composing the questions for the interviews. Appendix C demonstrates which archival data was used and what information was obtained from it. It includes publicly available documents and information from the intranet. Appendix D includes the tenure track policies that I compared. The table contains only the substantial differences between the policies to illustrate how the departments handle their tenure track appointments.
3.4 Data Analysis
All recorded interviews were transcribed in detail by using Word and VLC media player, which made it possible to slow down the audiotape. The transcripts were coded in ATLAS.ti, predominantly by using inductive coding. This study applied three levels of coding: open coding, axial coding and selective coding. The result of the coding process can be found in the codebook in Appendix E.
3.4.1 Open coding
codes were based on literature. Examples of inductive codes in this research are: ‘Reflections of attainability of job requirements’ or ‘Incompatibility of care leave and career development’.
3.4.2 Axial coding
Next, axial coding was applied. The definition for axial coding is: ‘The process of relating categories to their subcategories, termed ‘axial’ because coding occurs around the axis of a category, linking categories at the level of properties and dimensions’ (Corbin & Strauss, 1998, p. 123). During the axial coding phase, I searched for relationships between codes to create overarching themes and links between these themes. For example, ‘Gendered evaluations’ and ‘choice of words’ both fall under the axial code of ‘Perceptions of gender and the organization culture’ (Appendix E).
3.4.3 Selective coding
Finally, I applied selective coding. Corbin and Strauss (1998) define selective coding as ‘the process of integrating and refining the theory’ (p. 143). In other words, all different identified concepts and codes are being systematically linked. During the selective coding process, different analytic techniques, as advised by Yin (2014), were applied. In his book, Yin (2014) advises using several types of analytic techniques when conducting a case study. One technique I applied in this thesis is explanation building, which is used to try to explain a certain phenomenon and see how or why something has happened (Yin, 2014).
3.5 Research Quality
Yin (2014) identifies four tests that are commonly used to establish the quality level of empirical research in the social field. He states that since conducting case study research is a part of this ‘larger body, the four tests are also relevant to case study research’ (Yin, 2014, p. 121). The four tests, together with the case study tactics and the phase of the research in which they occur, are provided in Table 3, which is based on Yin’s book (2014) but adapted for this research.
Table 3
Quality of the research
Test Case study tactic Phase within research
Construct validity - Triangulation: 14 semi-structured interviews, multiple types of archival data
- Create draft version of interview and discuss it with my supervisor. Afterwards, make adjustments
- Pilot interview - In-depth interviews - Data collection (Ch. 3.3) - Data collection (Ch.3.3) - Data collection (Ch. 3.3) - Data collection (Ch. 3.3)
Internal validity - Explanation building - Data analysis (Ch. 3.4)
External validity - Use of theory - Literature Review (Ch. 2)
4. Results
This section consists of two parts. The first part of this section presents four vignettes that represent some of the female faculty members. Vignettes represent a wide range within the answers, which demonstrate that the ‘typical’ female faculty member does not exist. There are many different types of faculty members who need different types of support. The second part of this section presents the data that was collected from the interviews. The collected data is divided into three subchapters.
4.1 Vignettes
When I combined the 14 interviews, I noticed different types of faculty members who have experienced similar problems. In this section, vignettes that contextualize these different types of faculty members demonstrate the range among the participants. The vignettes are mainly focused on tenure track staff; the other participants were used for further inspiration like family composition or life events. While there are certainly more types of female faculty members than are noted here, the types in this subsection emerged from the interviews I conducted. I am not arguing that there are four types of women in academia. The point I want to make, is that there appear to be more than one type of female faculty members and that reality is even more rich and diverse. Sometimes multiple interviews contributed to one vignette. I selected participants from three different departments. However, my analysis showed no differences per department. Rather, I noticed a very wide range per faculty member. For every vignette, a table represents the feeling of support per actor. The table should be read as follows:
1. Angelina Romano
Angelina Romano is a 33-year-old assistant professor from Italy. Her husband Karl has a top-management position and is assigned to a 3-year project in München. They have no children. The couple decided to live in Germany while Angelina travels back and forth to Groningen in order to give lectures. To Angelina, this is considered the only way to obtain the career she always wanted. She feels very supported by the faculty in many ways. First, they support her by making it possible to be in Groningen when she gives lectures. They also offer her the flexibility to work on her research in München, so she can see her husband and improve her work-life balance. Both personal flexibility and the flexibility offered by the faculty are very important for Angelina and her partner. Their personal flexibility has enabled them to live in different countries while working on their careers. Furthermore, Angelina feels welcome in Groningen. When she came to Groningen after earning her Ph.D. in Milan, she was assigned a mentor and the university offered her dual career support. Angelina and Karl utilized this support, but unfortunately, it did not work out as they had planned. When Karl received the project offer in München,
Feels supported
they decided to accept it because he still had not found employment in the North of the Netherlands. This has had a significant effect on their work-life balance, which is now quite challenging. However, Angelina accepts this intense travelling schedule because she feels that her hard work has paid off. She currently misses support from her department in terms of having a fixed contract. Not having a fixed contract makes her feel as if her position is insecure; she sometimes browses job offerings from other universities that may offer her a fixed contract. She mainly needs support from the faculty and her supervisor regarding career development. She can manage her own work-life balance and does not need help with that. Figure 1 shows Angelina’s passport.
Figure 1: Passport Angelina Romano
2. Sonja de Zwart
Figure 2: Passport Sonja de Zwart
3. Ellen de Boer
Figure 3: Passport Ellen de Boer
A crucial difference between Angelina and Ellen is that Ellen feels committed to the faculty and has had a slower career development trajectory. Ellen is also older than Angelina and has worked longer on her career. Ellen has mixed feelings about her commitment to the department.
4. Karin van der Veen
Figure 4: Passport Karin van der Veen
Karin is different because of her position as a full professor, which allows her to feel more relaxed in her daily work.
Sonja differs from the others because of the role that her children play in her career and work-life balance.
4.2 Perceptions of the Organization’s Culture and Climate
This section elaborates on the perceptions of the participants regarding the organization’s culture and climate. It provides quotations from the interviews with links to the previously described vignettes.
4.2.1 General working climate
Flexibility. First, the participants’ opinions of the general working climate are based on how flexible
the participants perceive their work environment to be. Every faculty member can make use of flexible work hours and workplaces. P10 explained why she perceives this as an advantage: ‘Yes, but the advantage is, of course, I have great freedom. I can also decide to work from home. (…) I can be flexible with my time. I can also sleep in the morning and work in the evening or something.’1 Flexibility at work
is also a big advantage for a faculty member like Angelina, whose life revolves around being flexible. However, to some faculty members, flexibility can also have drawbacks. P5 stated: ‘On the one hand that is of course very nice because you have a lot of flexibility, on the other hand, that makes the job a bit dangerous because you can always continue working, it is never finished.’2 Flexibility can be a pitfall
for a faculty member like Sonja, who is still in her early career phase. She must perform her job superlatively to meet the requirements for promotion, while also taking care of her family. Multiple participants (P1, P5, P10, P11, P12 and P14) did not perceive flexibility as something extra offered by
1Ja, maar het voordeel is wel, ik heb natuurlijk wel grote vrijheid he. Dus ik kan ook beslissen om thuis te werken. (…) Ik
kan best flexibel met mijn tijd om gaan. Dus ik kan ook ’s ochtends uitslapen en ’s avonds werken ofzo.
2Aan de ene kant is dat natuurlijk heel fijn want je hebt veel flexibiliteit, aan de andere kant maakt dat ook weer de baan wel een beetje
their departments. As P1 articulated: ‘The flexibility, well I do not see that as being linked to policy. It is obviously policy that we are able to work flexible hours, but it is so common in science... It is not policy specifically linked to Groningen. It is just in the nature of the profession and the industry.’3
Multiple sources of freedom at work. The perceived working climate also included the feeling of
freedom at work. Participants gave several examples of how they feel free. Academic freedom was mentioned multiple times. P8 stated: ‘Well in terms of content and in terms of research, I am completely free to know what I am doing. I experience that as an enormous freedom.’4 All faculty members can
benefit from this freedom, including Sonja and Angelina, young faculty members who are still developing their research interests; Karin, who is secure in her position but still values the ability to pursue her own research interests’ and Ellen, who feels that she has less institutional support than some of her colleagues and therefore has to be self-motivated. Furthermore, faculty members like Ellen and Karin also feel free because of their permanent contracts. P9 explained how her permanent contract resulted in decisions that did not necessarily develop her career, but which she enjoyed: ‘If you have a permanent contract, that pressure will dissolve. You can also observe if you can do something fun that might not help you further in your tenure track or not.’5
Work pressure. The work pressure that influences the participants’ perceptions about the general
working climate at the faculties consists of different elements. First, some participants feel the pressure of constant connectivity. P2 explained how this works and why she feels pressured: ‘When I write an email on Saturday to my colleagues, they respond by emailing on Sundays. That means that everybody is working. If they send me an email and I respond on Monday, I am a little bit late in responding’. Furthermore, someone like Ellen perceives pressure regarding publishing articles because she also experiences difficulty writing them. This influences her perception of work pressure. P14 explained how she perceives the pressure of publishing articles: ‘Regarding career policy: You accept the rules of the game if you publish this you will get further and otherwise you will not. If one does not accept it, it is a matter of looking for another job where people think they can take more steps.’ 6 Participants like Ellen
and Sonja also experience some pressure about meeting the high academic requirements. They sometimes find the requirements very challenging. P11 clarified this feeling: ‘An awful lot is required of you during the career trajectory. You have to meet an awful lot of criteria. There are about 33. All of which you have to finish and where you have to score excellent on all of them. You get very little
3Het flexibel indelen, maar ja ik zie dat niet echt gelinkt aan beleid ofzo. Het is natuurlijk wel beleid dat het mag, maar het is zo gebruikelijk
in de wetenschap... Dat is niet Groningen specifiek beleid. Dat is ook gewoon de aard van het vak en van de bedrijfstak.
4Nou inhoudelijk mag ik helemaal zelf weten wat ik doe, qua onderzoek dan. Dat ervaar ik wel als een enorme vrijheid.
5Als je een vast contract hebt, dan valt die druk wat weg, en dan kan ook je waarnemen als je iets leuks kan doen waarvan niet helemaal
duidelijk is of je dat nou verder gaat helpen in je tenure track of niet.
support.’7 However, faculty members like Karin currently perceive fewer challenges with these
requirements as they have to meet fewer requirements than those who have not yet achieved full professor.
Reflection of academic/job requirements. Participants perceive the requirements described earlier
differently in terms of attainability. P2 wondered whether requirements like living abroad are really necessary: ‘Do you really need to have international experiences? One of the requirements when you apply for a job is written at least two/three years abroad experience. After Ph.D., you are at a certain age that you would like to form a family’. International experience can be more challenging for someone like Sonja or Ellen because they already have children and are committed to their current circumstances. Others perceive the attainability of these requirements differently: ‘It is very clear to me what I have to do and what I have to achieve to become full professor. When I look at the criteria, I believe they are realistic.’8 (P7). This perception could pertain to someone like Karin, who is already a full professor
and appreciates the tenure track and its requirements. Participants also reflected on the healthiness and fairness of the requirements. P9 explained what has shaped her perceptions:
‘I also have colleagues who get out of bed an hour before their family for a long time just to work on that research proposal. And then I thought well ... no way. What do you ask from these people? It is not possible that you have to exploit your people like this to be able to check such a box somewhere.
But yes, it is that, or you supervise students. You cannot do everything and also stay healthy.’9
The quotation above is relevant to faculty members like Sonja. To them, some of the requirements are perceived as unhealthy or unfair. P13 explained what she experienced with regards to the fairness of the requirements:
‘There were Rosalind Franklin positions, so the promotion of women to higher positions. I was not eligible for that because I was an internal candidate. I was not eligible for a position as a professor by
special appointment because I was an internal candidate. And I thought I functioned at least as good or better than quite a few of those Rosalind Franklins. And then I thought yes hello! What is this
strange policy? Why don't you take a closer look at that?’10
For a faculty member like Ellen, this negative perception of her working climate may discourage her from pursuing future initiatives for her career.
Perceived support of different actors. Several actors also influence the participants’ perceptions of
their work climate and organizational culture. I found the widest range of perceptions within the
7 Er wordt verschrikkelijk veel van je gevraagd in dat carrière ontwikkel traject. Je moet aan verschrikkelijk veel criteria voldoen. Het zijn er
zo’n 33. Die je allemaal af moet werken en waar je allemaal eigenlijk excellent moet scoren en daarbij krijg je dus heel weinig ondersteuning.
8Het is voor mij heel duidelijk wat ik moet doen en wat ik moet halen om full professor te worden. En ik vind het ook wel, als ik kijk naar
de criteria, dan vind ik het ook reëel.
9Ik heb ook collega’s die een lange tijd elke dag een uur voor hun gezin zijn opgestaan om maar aan dat onderzoeksvoorstel te werken. En
toen dacht ik van ja… echt niet. Wat vraag je nou van mensen? Dat kan toch niet, dat je zo je mensen zo moet uitbuiten om ergens zo’n box te kunnen checken. Maar ja het is dus dat, of je begeleidt studenten. Je kan niet alles doen en ook nog gezond blijven.
10Er waren Rosalind Franklin posities, dus de stimulering van vrouwen op hogere posities. Daar kwam ik niet voor in aanmerking want ik
perceived support for career development and finding a work-life balance. The vignettes demonstrate by whom certain types of faculty members feel supported. One may wonder why distinct types of faculty members perceive support differently. The presented vignettes attempt to answer this question, but some quotations add particular value regarding our understanding of this range.
Firstly, participants perceive support with regards to support from their supervisor in professional development differently. Some participants felt supported by their supervisor. P8 stated: ‘She really supported me, for example, when writing the research proposal. She also gave feedback. (…) She also helped to think about what would be useful choices and to give advice.’11 In contrast, other
participants felt unsupported: ‘So, I don't actually have a direct supervisor with whom I communicate a lot about my task. He has had little meaning in my development.’12 (P7). Based on the interview data,
no clear distinction can be made about which faculty’s supervisors are perceived as more or less supportive.
Second, participants perceive support from their supervisor about life events differently. P6 provided an example of not feeling supported by her supervisor: ‘But actually all events that I have discussed with you now, my manager was completely absent. Whoever that was. (…) And during my father who passed away, for example, my supervisor has not yet heard anything, I believe. So not very supportive at all.’13 However, P5 explained how she felt that her supervisor supported her pregnancy:
‘He was just very enthusiastic: oh, how nice for you and how do you feel? It was fine and very facilitating with courses at a different time and taking over courses and that was no problem’14 Again, a distinction
between faculties cannot be made based on the interview data.
Third, participants elaborated on the perceived support of their colleagues, both in their career development and their work-life balance. P7 explained how she perceives her colleagues as supportive of her career development and writing papers: ‘And of course I have close colleagues with whom I can discuss science. I just have occasional conversations with them. I find it more useful in terms of content.’15 This type of support was also felt by a faculty member like Sonja, who is early in her career
and has many senior people around her to advise her. P2 also stated that her colleagues support each other about female issues and common problems.
Finally, some participants were assigned a mentor or found an informal mentor. They all felt supported by these people in career and work-life balance. P8 explained how her mentor supported her work-life balance: ‘When I was a Ph.D. student, he always sent me home at five o'clock. And if I didn't,
11Ze heeft me wel echt gesteund ook bij het schrijven van het onderzoeksvoorstel bijvoorbeeld. Daar heeft ze ook feedback gegeven. (…)
Ze heeft ook wel geholpen met na te denken wat nou handige keuzes zouden zijn en daarin advies geven.
12Dus ik heb eigenlijk niet een direct leidinggevende waar ik veel mee communiceer over mijn taak. Die heeft weinig betekenis in mijn
ontwikkeling gehad
13Maar eigenlijk alle events die ik heb besproken nu met je, was mijn leidinggevende totaal afwezig. Wie dat dan ook was. (…) En tijdens
mijn vader die overleed bijvoorbeeld, mijn leidinggevende heeft nog niets van zich laten horen geloof ik. Dus allemaal niet erg supportive.
14Hij was gewoon heel enthousiast: oh wat leuk voor jullie en hoe voel je je? Die was prima en heel faciliterend met vakken op een ander
moment en het overnemen van vakken en dat was geen enkel probleem.
he would see that in me too. That was sometimes quite difficult in combination with a young family.’16
Others also felt supported in their career development: ‘ I had a mentor who was telling me, maybe you want to do this course about how to supervise your Ph.D. students. Then of course I had experience, but then my mentor told me: no go there because you are in a new country, the rules are different so you need to know. Or leadership and time management.’ (P2). Having a mentor would be very useful for a faculty member like Angelina who is very career-driven. A mentor would also benefit Sonja, who struggles to find the right balance between her young family and her career.
Participants without children, such as Angelina, seemed to feel more supported by the different actors than those with children. This may be because they have no experience with parental leave, pregnancy leave or the right to breastfeed at work. These can be policies that require more support or understanding from different parts of the institution. Not utilizing these policies may be one of the reasons why the participants without children claimed to feel more supported at work.
4.2.2 Perceptions of gender and the organization’s culture
The perceptions of the participants about gender and the organization’s culture have different sources. This section elaborates on these sources.
Wording and gendered evaluations. The choice of words that are used to describe academic
performance are, according to P1 and P12, different for men and women. P1 experienced this and explained how she noticed a difference in wording:
‘What you often see is that women are being seen as conscientious, good team player or nice whereas man are seen as a brilliant scientist, a smart person or someone who reaches his goals. These terms are very important in science and bring you further in your career. I experienced this myself during my Ph.D. when I received an annual letter from my supervisor to bring to the evaluation committee, which exactly reflected this bias.’17
P9 explained that she sometimes perceives evaluations as gendered: ‘For example, that you have to perform three times as much to be seen as a male colleague. That men are often rewarded for something they still have to show because they think that he will probably do. While women must have proven it first and then they move on.’18 These perceptions are not related to a certain type of faculty member.
When reviewing the answers and the participants who contributed to the construction of the vignettes,
16Toen ik nog aio was stuurde hij me altijd om vijf uur naar huis. En als ik dat niet deed, dan zag hij dat ook wel aan me. Dat was gewoon
soms best zwaar in combinatie met een jong gezin.
17En wat je heel vaak ziet is dat vrouwen gezien worden als consciëntieus, goede team player, heel aardig, dat soort dingen, terwijl mannen
eerder beoordeeld worden als briljant onderzoeker, slim iemand, haalt zijn doelen, dat soort dingen. In de wetenschap zijn dat de belangrijke kenmerken waarmee je weer verder komt en bewustzijn daarvan dat zie ik niet. Ik had dat zelf met mijn Ph.D., daar werd je elk jaar ook door je supervisor, dan kreeg je zo’n brief mee naar de beoordelingscommissie, en dat was aan een andere universiteit, maar daar zie je dat precies in terug.
18Bijvoorbeeld dat je drie keer zoveel moet presteren om net zo gezien te worden als een mannelijke collega. Dat mannen toch vaker al
this perception can be linked to all vignettes. However, full professors like Karin might not currently experience this because they are no longer being frequently evaluated.
Gaining responsibilities. According to P5, gender issues can also be identified in the assignment of
tasks. She explained how this happened when women returned to work after having children: ‘They want to protect you by saying well we will not give you this task. And they do not do it in consultation, they just do it with the best intentions and think: “you already have much on your plate”’.19 In addition
to gaining responsibilities, some participants explained how they believe that the selection for assignments is based on familiarity. They feel like gender influences the selection:
‘I think there are a lot of excellent women out there who could fill certain positions but are not chosen because they are not thought of or because they are not getting through the old boys network. (…) I
think they just follow the old principle of well you're looking for someone from your own network because it's trusted and the asymmetric information is as small as possible. And yes, there are mainly
men in their network. Then you end up with a man again.’20
4.3 Interactions Between Work, Life and Society
This subsection discusses, the perceived interactions between work, life and society. It reviews the perceived problems and opportunities of these interactions by using the vignettes that describe specific faculty members. This subsection also contextualizes how the policies function in the work environment.
4.3.1 Lack of awareness
A lack of awareness about policies emerged from the interviews. Supervisors and faculty members were often unaware of university policies. This ignorance can particularly affect faculty members, such as Sonja, who sometimes need certain policies. These policies should be offered by their supervisors. P3 provided an example of how her supervisor was unaware when she needed the policies: ‘Let me be honest. When I needed care days and asked my supervisor about it, he was not even aware of what existed. I think you can take two weeks of normal care leave. Then I just took holidays.’21 Faculty
members like Karin or Angelina who are further along in their careers or have fewer family care duties also see the use of policies as an administrative burden and would rather use their holidays. P9 provided an example:
‘How bad should something be that you take care leave? If there was anything with the kids, I always thought I'd go and see how many overtime hours I worked. Because I think I had not taken 166 vacation hours last year. Then I'm just going to compensate for that. It is not that I deliberately do not
19Dat ze je dan bijvoorbeeld een beetje uit de wind houden, van nou weet je.. we geven je die taak niet. En dat doen ze niet in overleg, dat
doen ze gewoon wel met de beste bedoelingen van nou ja je hebt al zoveel nu.
20Ik denk dat er heel veel uitstekende vrouwen zijn die bepaalde posities zouden kunnen vervullen maar die niet gekozen worden omdat er
niet aan ze wordt gedacht of omdat ze niet door het old boys network heendringen. (…) Ik denk dat ze gewoon het aloude principe volgen van nou je zoekt iemand uit je eigen netwerk want dat is vertrouwd en dan is de asymmetrische informatie zo klein mogelijk. En ja, in hun netwerk zitten vooral mannen. Dus dan kom je ook weer op een man uit.
take care leave, but that I think I have no idea what it is for and I have a lot of hours left so I will just compensate that.’22
Additionally, these faculty members would probably appreciate their supervisor becoming more aware of career development policies. For this reason, the lack of awareness at the supervisory and individual level is perceived differently by different faculty members. Those who do not need the policies do not want to spend time investigating which policies may be beneficial for them. However, some faculty members would certainly benefit if their supervisor had more knowledge about work-life or career development policies.
4.3.2 Incompatibility of career development and work-life policies
This section elaborates on the trade-off that faculty members feel they must make between taking leave and receiving excellent evaluations or publishing articles. Faculty members like Ellen are quite critical about this trade-off. They have worked for the university for a long time and have experienced this perceived trade-off. For example, P3 spoke about such a trade-off with regards to care leave: ‘It is a kind of negative sum game, where you have to choose whether you take care leave, or whether you want to get your publications up to standard. It can make you desperate.’23 Types like Ellen might feel that
the policy is useless because they feel like they make use of their own career when they take time for care leave. Sonja, who has young children and also had a child when she began at this university, might also perceive the incompatibility with pregnancy leave or breaks for breastfeeding. P8 elaborated on this trade-off:
‘I think you can use a quarter of your working time for that. I thought well, if I am not there for a quarter of my working time, when should I work? I also was not pumping a quarter of my work time either, that went much faster. So, I felt a bit burdened. Then I thought well I cannot claim all that, but
in practice not use it. So, I felt a little uncomfortable with it.’24
Faculty members like Angelina, who are focused on their careers and do not have children, have fewer problems with this incompatibility. They rarely use certain work-life policies and focus more on career development policies.
4.3.3 Disproportional committee responsibilities due to representation policy
The women who were interviewed feel like they have disproportional committee responsibilities because they are female. Faculty members like Ellen or Karin must evaluate others and serve on committees and, therefore, have less time to work on their papers and research. However, papers and research are the most important aspects of their jobs on their own evaluations. P11 provided an example:
22Hoe erg iets moet zijn dat je zorgverlof opneemt? Dus als er iets was met de kinderen, dan dacht ik altijd van ik ga eens even kijken
hoeveel overuren ik gewerkt heb. Want volgens mij had ik vorig jaar iets van 166 vakantie uren niet opgenomen. Dan ga ik dat gewoon compenseren. Dus dan is het niet zo dat ik bewust geen zorgverlof opneem, maar dat ik denk van ik heb geen idee waar het voor is en ik heb nog heel veel uren over dus ik ga dat gewoon compenseren.
23Het is een soort van negative sum game, waar je moet kiezen of je nou zorgverlof opneemt, of dat je dus je publicaties op peil haalt. Het is
om wanhopig van te worden.
24Je mag dus een kwart van je werktijd geloof ik gebruiken daarvoor. Maar ik dacht ja, als ik een kwart van mijn werktijd er niet ben, voelde
‘I have to do a disproportionate amount of committee work. We are asked much more often for those kinds of administrative tasks. It is important that you do those administrative tasks, also for your career and that you are visible, but at the same time it never delivers what you could do if you could
just focus purely on your research. Because that is rated much higher.’25
Furthermore, faculty members like Angelina or Sonja sometimes feel lonely on committees because of their junior level and minority status. The current policies do not support any of these faculty members with these extra tasks.
4.3.4 Masculinity instead of men at the top
Based on the interviews, many faculty members perceive women at the top as masculine women. This does not imply that the women at the top are masculine. It only implies that they are perceived as masculine. This subsection elaborates on how faculty members feel that it is not only men who are leaders, but also that masculinity is present at the top of the organization.
Ineffectiveness of policy on organizational change regarding gender diversity. Some policies for
gender diversity are perceived by the participants as ineffective and, sometimes, even as counterproductive. An example of such a policy is the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship, which is aimed at attracting and retaining female scientists. People like Ellen want to be involved in this support program because they are committed to the university; however, some faculty members have critiqued the requirements and outcomes of this policy. P9 explained: ‘It can also be seen when looking at the Rosalind Franklin fellows. They have to come from abroad, they must have done this and that. Like I said, I think that many of those young women are women without a family who are working extremely hard. How does this change the organization?’26 In other words, the participant claims that even though
this policy is aimed at women, it often also attracts women without children or young families; therefore, these women only contribute by being women, rather than adding femininity into the organization. Furthermore, a career development policy like the tenure track is strongly performance driven, which is often linked to masculinity. Some participants that are in similar situations as Sonja and Ellen believe that these policies do not affect diversity at the top levels: ‘And I do think that with those tenure track criteria, for example, yes, you very much maintain that you select a certain type of scientist and promote it to a professor, and I don't think that's right.’27 (P8). This perception demonstrates the discrepancy
between aiming for more women, while still promoting performance driven programs.
25Ik moet disproportioneel veel commissiewerk doen. Wij moeten met een handjevol vrouwen al die quota vullen. Dus wij worden veel
vaker gevraagd voor dat soort administratieve taken. Het is wel belangrijk dat je die administratieve taken doet, ook voor je carrière en dat je zichtbaar bent, maar tegelijkertijd levert het nooit op wat je zou kunnen doen als je je gewoon puur mocht focussen op je onderzoek. Want dat wordt toch veel hoger gewaardeerd.
26 Dat is ook wel te zien aan bijvoorbeeld het Rosalind Franklin fellows. Want, hè, die moeten bijvoorbeeld uit het buitenland komen en die
moeten dit gedaan hebben die moeten dat gedaan hebben. Zoals ik al eerder zei, volgens mij zijn heel veel van die, van jonge vrouwen, zonder gezin die zich hier dan helemaal te pletter gaan werken. En hoe verandert dat nou de organisatie?
